Melbourne Named World’s Most Livable City (Again)

Australian city claimed think tank’s top spot for sixth year in a row

The Australian city of Melbourne has been crowned the best place in the world to live for the sixth year in a row.

Of the 140 cities surveyed by the U.K.-based Economist Intelligence Unit as part of its annual ranking of livable locales, Melbourne was top, but was very closely followed by Vienna, Vancouver and Toronto, while Calgary and Adelaide tied for fifth place.

Six of the top 10 cities were either located in Australia or Canada, but Sydney was an exception—dropping out of the top 10, owing to a heightened perceived threat of terrorism.

The think-tank’s index looks at which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions—assessing a number of factors including stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

Over the past year, 35 cities of the 140 surveyed have experienced changes in scores. Of these changes, the majority have been negative, reflecting deteriorating stability, as cities around the world face heightened threats of terrorism or unrest.

“The continuing weakening of global stability scores has been made uncomfortably apparent by a number of high-profile incidents that have not shown any signs of slowing in recent years,” the report found.

“Violent acts of terrorism have been reported in many countries, including Turkey, Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, France, Belgium and the U.S. This has been a year undoubtedly marked by terrorism. While not a new phenomenon, its frequency and spread have increased noticeably and become even more prominent in the past year."

Paris, for example, witnessed a sharp decline in its ranking, due to a mounting number of terrorist attacks taking place in the city—and in other parts of the country—over the past three years.

U.S. cities have recently seen further declines in scores. This partly stems from unrest related to a number of deaths in the past couple of years of black people either in police custody or shot on the street despite being unarmed. Nevertheless, with such high scores already in place, the impact of such declines has not been enough to push any city into a lower tier of livability.

The report also found that global business centers tend to be victims of their own success and that the "big city buzz” can overstretch infrastructure and cause higher crime rates.

New York, London, Paris and Tokyo, for example, are all prestigious hubs with a wealth of recreational activity, but all suffer from higher levels of crime, congestion and public transport problems, the report found.

“The question is how much wages, the cost of living and personal taste for a location can offset livability factors. Although global centers fare less well in the ranking than mid-sized cities, for example, they still sit within the highest tier of livability and should therefore be considered broadly comparable, especially when contrasted with the worst-scoring locations,” it said.